Code Lyoko: The Daughter of Shadows
by calazar
Summary: In the darkness of Sector Five, many secrets are kept. Old data files that should never be opened or seen again. It was here that she was born. It was here that she was trapped. And it is there that she will escape from. A secret that should never have been revealed is out in the open. Will the Warriors be able handle it? Or will Lyoko finally succumb to its sins?
1. Chapter 1: The Shadow Of Lyoko

**A/N: Heyo guys, I know it's been awhile since I've done anything on this sight but I plan to change that. Starting now, I will be updating at a semi-frequent rate. and now on with my latest story.**

 **Chapter One**

The Shadow of Lyoko

 _I heard the code, the darkness, and felt the presence of what I called the Dark Mother. It was comforting. There was no light in the Dark Mother's home, only whispers and shadows. In my head, I heard Mother's voice, giving me names and instructions: Carthage, Lyoko, Hopper, Protect, Fight. I hoped to understand these things to help Mother in any way I could. It never realized that I did not understand what it wanted. It wasn't long before Mother began to get frustrated._

 _It was annoyed that its schedule was falling behind, from me or something else, I did not know. I could hear it's voice when it talked to me, making notes in a file I could not access. Once more it spoke of things I did not understand. I begged Mother to let me help it, to let me try. It refused. Time and time again, it refused._

 _Finally it gave up. It said I wasn't ready, wasn't pure, pathetic. But I still had a task, a function, a way to help Mother. So I did what I could with what it gave me._

 _After a while, Mother stripped me of everything I had known before, pushing me away. Pushing me out of it's system. It put me in a bright, blue space, with lots of codes and algorithms running faster than I could process. It said I was supposed to monitor something called the Carthage system. To watch it until Mother was ready._

 _There I stayed, unaware of what happened outside of what I had come to call The Blue, trying so hard to help Mother. After a while, Mother became displeased with my performance again. It's the only explanation I could imagine as to why it shut down the blue space as well._

 _I was sent back to the place I had last seen Mother, its home. It turned me into a subroutine, not a primary function. I felt unwanted, useless, pathetic, just as she had described me. The Carthage System was shut down soon afterwards and I was left alone in the merciless darkness. I had no window to look out of, no escape from the den. I became hopeless and soon faded into obscurity, even in my own mind._

Ulrich Stern was sitting with his friends in his room, discussing their plans for defeating Xana. Ulrich was a lean boy with brown hair. He wore a faded green shirt and dark green cargo pants. His black shoes were resting next to the bed that he was sitting on.

Next to him sat his roommate, Odd Della-Robbia. Odd was also lean,falling more on the scrawny side, but he was most definitely the jokester of the group. His choice of apparel matched his eccentric attitude, with a purple long-sleeve shirt and dark purple pants. His blond hair was gelled to unnaturally spike upwards and had a purple dot dyed in the middle. His outfit was completed by bright yellow shoes that were lifted a few inches into the air as the boy stretched out on the bed.

Sitting across the room, at Ulrich's desk, was Jeremie Belpois. Jeremie was the brains of the group. With his neat blond hair, circular glasses, and brown slacks, he looked like a stereotypical nerd. His blue long-sleeved shirt was almost too big for him as it bunched around his waist and elbows.

On the other bed in the small room, Aelita Stones sat with her legs folded under her. She had bushy, pink hair and wore a maroon jumper over a light pink long-sleeved shirt. She had tall, pink boots sitting on the floor next to her. In stark contrast to the pinkette next to her sat Yumi Ishiyama. She had chin length, black hair and wore a black long-sleeved shirt that left her midriff exposed. Going with that color scheme, she wore black jeans and black combat boots.

"No, it won't work; Aelita's bound to Xana," said Jeremie after a period of silence. "If we infect the supercomputer with a virus who knows what will happen to her."

"Or Xana could just take it over and use it against us," Aelita said. "Then Xana could use that chance to steal my memory while you were fighting your own program."

"Well, we all know Xana would jump at the chance to steal Aelita's memory or destroy the scanners. We all know Xana just _loves_ playing fair," Odd said sarcastically.

"He's right. And without anything to stop Xana in the real world, we're stuck with fighting him on Lyoko," Ulrich groaned, rubbing his eyes. As he said this, Odd's small dog, Kiwi, crawled underneath the covers, paws over his ears as he whimpered slightly.

"Hey, what's wrong Kiwi?" Odd asked, leaning over to gaze at his dog. They all jumped at the sudden loud banging on the door of the dorm room.

"Stern, Della-Robbia! I want you out of there now and in class in the next two minutes, or it's detention for the both of you! And if any of your friends are in there with you, the same goes for them as well!" This was the stern voice of Jim, the school's PE teacher, who was standing outside the door and had obviously heard the two.

Jim was a broad man with short brown hair. He injured himself more often than not when he was teaching, making him the butt of most jokes in the school. He was also the teacher most suspicious of the group's activities. In fact, they had almost been caught by Jim several times, only avoiding the teacher thanks to the secret passages that led to the computer lab.

They scurried out of the room and towards their classes under Jim's threatening scowl, hoping to avoid giving him an excuse to punish them. After class, the group sat in the courtyard of Kadic Academy, enjoying the remainder of the day. Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich were joking around and laughing as they sat underneath a large tree. Jeremie and Yumi sat on the nearby bench.

Just as Odd had finished telling yet another bad joke, Jeremie's computer started beeping. That was a notification that Jeremie had designed to warn him about anything unusual on Lyoko. Whenever it went off it usually meant that Xana was attacking. But this time, when he opened his computer, he saw that it was not displaying the coordinates of an activated tower but a warning of something going on in Sector Five. Jeremie frowned at his computer, working to find what was wrong.

"Well, that can't be right," the computer wiz muttered.

"What is it, Einstein?" Odd asked, having heard the beeping. "Is Xana attacking?"

"No, he's not. But there's something strange in Sector Five. It's not moving. It's not doing anything as far as I can tell."

"Well, let's not wait for it to do something," Aelita said.

"Ah, and just when I was thinking Xana would give it a rest for the week," Odd complained. Ulrich jumped to his feet.

"Well, come on, guys. The sooner we get to the factory, the sooner we find out what's going," he called as he started running towards forest.

The others started to follow him, but Jeremie' gaze remained fixated on his computer, thinking. He only looked up when Aelita poked him on the arm.

"Jeremie, whatever's happening will still be happening at the factory. It's not restricted to your computer, you know," she laughed.

"Yeah, I know. I was just thinking," he explained, closing up his computer. "This thing just appears then doesn't do anything. That's not like Xana. When he attacks us, normally it's fast. It's brutal and uncaring, and he doesn't just wait around for us to notice that he's on the offensive. It strikes as fast as it can to catch us off guard. This isn't normal."

"Your right, Xana wouldn't usually just wait around for us to notice," Arlita said, gently closing the lid of Jeremie's laptop. "But we won't get any answers from staring at your computer, now shall we? It's like Ulrich said: the sooner we get to the factory and onto Lyoko, the sooner we can find out what's happening. So come on already. The others could be at the factory by now."

She took off running with Jeremie close behind her. When they got to the factory they found the others waiting in the computer lab. The room was mostly empty, only having a large spherical hologram map of Lyoko and a large monitor hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room. The metallic walls had a green gleam to them as they reflected the light of the Holomap.

"I tell you, you two are slower than snails," Odd said. "We've been here for… how long has it been?"

"Cut it out Odd," Ulrich scolded,though he couldn't hold back a small smile of his own. "Come on, let's get to Lyoko already."

"Ulrich's right. Get to the scanner room and prepare for the plunge," Jeremie said,sprinting towards the monitor of the supercomputer.

The others nodded and got into the elevator, Yumi pressing the button for the scanner room once they were all in. The scanner room was much smaller than the computer lab, having only enough room to fit the three large bronze tube-like scanners. When the elevator opened, the four teens stepped into the middle of the room and waited for Jeremie's confirmation that he was ready on his end.

"Okay everybody, ladies first," the boy said over the loudspeaker.

"Okay, Jeremie, we're ready," Yumi called once she and Aelita had stepped into the scanners.

"Alright then, I'm sending you to the forest," he said, starting the virtualization process. "Scanner Yumi. Scanner Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Aelita. Virtualization! Ok, Odd, Ulrich, your turn."

"Alright Jeremie, fire it up," Ulrich said once he and Odd were in their cabins.

"Ok. Scanner Odd. Scanner Ulrich. Transfer Odd. Transfer Ulrich. Virtualization!"

 _Lyoko: forest sector_

As the virtualization process ended, Ulrich felt a slight lifting sensation on his back, like he had been put on a coat hanger. He had come to expect this, as often as he came to Lyoko it was almost normal for him. His apparel changed drastically when he was on Lyoko, as everyone's did.

The brown haired boy now wore a bright yellow kimono with brown trousers, grey tabi and waraji. On his chest was depicted a rising sun and on his back was the visage of the Smiling Oni in white ink. At his hip was a katana, his primary weapon on Lyoko, securely fastened by an owa-ubi. Finishing the outfit was a yellow headband wrapped around his head, it's two tails fluttering as he fell to the forest floor.

He scowled when Odd began chuckling once they landed. Odd's appearance on Lyoko was a strange one. His hair still stood on end but was more natural, not needing to be held up by gell in the virtual world. His face was marked by a set of four purple triangles, two above his eyes and two on his cheeks. He wore a dark purple tank top and combat pants. His hands had been replaced with large cat-like paws. The weirdest part, however, was the fact that the eccentric boy now had a thin purple tail.

"What's so funny, Odd?"Ulrich demanded.

"You," the blond haired boy laughed "I just realised that you look like your bowing to some lord you hate whenever you land."

"Haha, very funny," the samurai grumbled.

"Why don't you two stop wasting time and start moving," Aelita cut in.

Aelita's outfit was simple yet practical. She wore a pink and green tunic along with light green cloth pants. Her forearms were covered by light tan wrappings and her feet were wrapped in pink cloth shoes. Her hair was not as bushy as it was in the real world, and her ears were pointed.

The conversation stopped as she took off running toward the far edge of the forest. Yumi followed her as Ulrich and Odd looked at each other and shrugged. Yumi's appearance was by far the most complex. Her hair was wrapped up into a tight bun on top of her head with the rest cascading behind her head. She wore a red and black, flower-laden kimono with a yellow obi tied around her waist, part of it folded on her back, by a obi-jime. Her arms were wrapped in loose white cloth that barely went past her knuckles, and her legs were adorned with a thick black material that went down to the small black okobos that covered her feet.

The boys ran after Yumi, catching up quickly thanks to their speed. The group ran through the thick forest, avoiding whatever monsters crossed their path and slaying the ones they could not avoid. Finally reaching their destination, the plateau that signified the edge of the sector, the group stopped upon seeing a swarm of krabs and kankrelats. The crustacean-like monsters were moving slowly, keeping together in a tight group, like they were expecting an attack. And they were heading straight towards the teens.

"Cool, dinner and a show. Hey, which do you guys want, the romantic shellfish dinner or the slimy cockroach platter? Honestly, take your pick," Odd said as he came up beside Yumi.

"Odd, you're with me, get the krabs," Yumi yelled, pulling out her tessen fans. "Ulrich, protect Aelita. If it shows up, don't let the Scyphozoa near her!"

"On it!" The boy said as he jumped back and drew his sabre. Normally Ulrich hated guard duty, but this wasn't the time to complain. He watched carefully as the battle unfolded. Odd started off by jumping on top of the Krab closest to him and shooting it in the mark on its shell, while Yumi threw one of her fans into another, hitting and killing it before it could get out of the way. The two warriors made short work of the minions before walking back to Ulrich and Aelita.

"Nice work, guys. Sorry for not warning you, but my screens froze for a second." Jeremie apologized. "I'll summon up the transporter for you."

"Don't worry about it, Jeremie," Aelita reassured. "It was nothing we couldn't handle."

They heard a clicking noise as Jeremie started to type in the password for the transporter. When the clicking stopped, the warriors saw the white and blue orb that led to Sector Five rising towards them, enveloping them as it reached the platform. Ulrich hated riding in the transporter. It always felt weird, like he was being turned into light or mist and yet forced to go in a specific direction.

As they flew over the forest sector, the group noticed a lot more monsters roaming around than usual. This worried Aelita, but Ulrich was not bothered much. Xana was getting stronger. This was common knowledge already.

Flying out of the sector, the transporter entered the barrier of code that protected Sector Five,circling around the spherical sector a few times before entering the arena, a circular room with a narrow corridor leading out of it. The Lyoko Warriors appeared in a flash of white light as they were deposited by the transporter. Odd clutched his stomach and groaned. Riding to Sector Five always upset his stomach.

Sector Five was made up of bright white halls and deep pits spelling doom for whoever was unlucky enough to fall into them. And to top it all off, there was a switch that they needed to find if they were to escape the labyrinth that surrounded the arena.

"Okay guys, you have three minutes and counting to find the key," Jeremie said.

"Alright Jeremie, where is it?" Yumi asked.

"Just give me a few seconds," Jeremie said. "Okay, I've got it. It will be on your right. That new signal is coming from the corridor on the other side on the room."

The warriors nodded, even though Jeremie could not see them, and ran out of the arena, the only peaceful place in Sector Five. Running through the corridor into the hallway outside, they exited only to see nothing, just a bare room. Normally there would be some form of trap. They looked to the right and saw the eye-like switch hanging on the wall.

They all ran towards the key before they heard a grinding noise. They looked up, scattering as a ceiling panel slammed down where they had just stood before retracting back into the ceiling.

"That's better. I was beginning to think Xana had forgotten us," Odd said.

"Ulrich, you're the fastest. We'll stay here while you go and get that key," Aelita said.

"Hurry guys. There's only one minute left," Jeremie warned.

The samurai nodded then took off running, activating his "super sprint" as he did so. He rushed toward the small target shaped mark, the ceiling columns rumbling and slamming down behind him. Slapping the key as soon as he reached the wall, Ulrich watched as the ceiling columns retreated. Another grinding noise was followed by four new passages opening up.

"Great job, Ulrich. Quickly, to your left: the signal is coming from down there, and it's not alone any more - four creepers dead ahead." Jeremie said.

The warriors ran down the specified corridor, and at first saw nothing. Then flashes of light reached their eyes, and they saw a blurred figure jumping and flipping around the slug like forms of the creepers, eliminating them with ease. When the figure had killed the last one, it turned and walked toward the four teens. As it walked into the room, they saw it was a girl.

The girl was dressed in a dark black tunic with greyish shoulder guards and knives hanging off her belt. She had long black hair that rested on her shoulder. But what really stood out to the group was the dark red mark on her right shoulder guard: the eye of Xana.

"You going to attack me too, or are you just going admit defeat?" the girl asked.

 _0.5 hours after awakening_

After killing another batch of slugs, I noticed five beings which looked like me standing in the hallway, waiting. No doubt they wanted to attack me as well. I slid my knives back into the sheaths on my hips, knowing that I could draw them fast enough if I had to, and walked toward them.

"You going to attack me too, or are you just going to admit defeat?" I asked.

They all appeared stunned. Good, it would be easier for me to kill them that way when they attacked. One of the two girls, the one in a pink and green tunic, stepped forward, hands raised in a placating gesture.

"We're not here to attack you." I snorted in disbelief at her words, which I was sure were lies. To be fair, they were the most intelligent things I had encountered thus far. They could talk, at least. "We're just here to find out what's going on."

"Well, good for you." I cut in, not caring for her excuses. "So here's how I see it. I've been here for a while now, and everything here has attacked me. Now you're here, offering help. I would be a fool to accept that at face value." I wasn't going to let myself be deceived by another troupe of enemies, no matter how smart they were.

"Guys, since we've found out what the signal was, why don't we leave before she makes us leave the hard way?" The girl in black and red suggested.

"I think that's a marvelous plan." I growled. The farther away they were, the better.

"Okay, then." The pink girl continued. "If you want to get out of the sector, we'll leave you a ride outside the dome."

With that, they turned around and walked out from where they came, leaving me standing alone. Afterwards, I wandered around the area without seeing anymore of them. I did see more slugs, however, but easily managed to get rid of them by slicing their throats before they could react. Finally, I got bored of waiting and wandering, so I left through the corridor that the warriors had left in their wake.

As I walked out of the hall, I saw that I was on the inside of a dark purple sphere. Looking around, I saw that they had apparently kept their word. There was a thin purple board floating beside where the floor dropped off. I stepped on carefully, lurching when the vehicle flew toward a massive hole in the side of the sphere.

Except the hole was actually a tunnel. I did not know how the board knew where it was going, but it flew straight through. Coming out, I saw an ocean filled with glaciers and ice floes. The words were familiar for some reason, like I had heard them before. The board took me to a white pillar that had black cords flowing into it and a light blue aura around it, near the edge of the ice floe.

When it came close enough to the ground I jumped off the vehicle and started to walk away from the pillar. As soon as my feet touched the ground, the aura of the pillar began to turn a dark red. As I walked, I saw red outlines appear behind me out of the corner of my eye. When the outlines had fully made their appearance, they looked like cubes with legs and large targets on their sides. These things looked easy enough to handle, so I turned and ran at them, drawing my knives in a flash.

I closed in on them so fast, the one closest to me got toppled over as I ran past it, and the other one exploded after I shoved my knife into the target on one of its sides. I turned to the cube I had toppled over. It was struggling feebly, trying to right itself. I stalked up to it and scowled. Pathetic.

"Your life does not deserve to be cut short." I said as the cube continued to struggle. "But you tried to kill me. That is unacceptable."

I squated down to where I was eye level with the target, my knives held loosely in my hands. I smiled cruelly when the cube stopped struggling. I had won, or so I thought. The target I was looking at suddenly began to glow a bright red. I rolled out of the way as a red bolt of crackling energy shot past me. I rolled into a crouch and glared at the cube.

"Die!" I screamed in anger, more to myself than anything else, rushing towards it and ramming both of my knives into the target. "And be forgotten."

The cube exploded like its brethren, leaving behind nothing but its legs, which vanished soon after. I stalked away, not even glancing back at the pillar that continued to burn a deep red.


	2. Chapter 2: Shadows in the Wind

**Chapter Two**

Shadows in the Wind

The Cubes kept coming, moving quickly despite the ice beneath them. They seemed to think they could defeat me with mere numbers. The red pillar appeared to be their nest, as they always came from that direction in some way or another. I had fought other creatures as well. There were the red, four legged creatures I called "Walkers." They were hard to kill, as the target that seemed to be present on all of the creatures was located on the top of their broad shells several feet above me. They were easy to deceive, however, so if I encountered one I could get away easily. There were also the Flying Slugs. They were easier to kill with my throwing knives, but harder to deceive as they had an aerial view and could spot any hiding places I used.

Nowadays, I spent my time killing creatures and keeping them away from the ice cave that I had begun to call home. I had found that the hood that hung off my tunic could render me invisible to the creatures. This made it much easier to escape when I was surrounded. I also found that, after a closer examination of the Kabutowari I wielded, there was a small hook by the hilt. It was obviously meant to catch something, but I couldn't figure out what.

Now fighting the latest group of cubes that had tried to invade my cave, I threw my throwing knives into as many of their targets as I could. It was a bad idea for them to try to invade my cave. They were doing nothing but throwing away their lives.

I had chosen this cave as my home because it fed into a labyrinth of ice tunnels. It was easy to escape from and impossible to be followed in. I stabbed the final cube in the target, uttering a small prayer once their remains vanished.

"May you embrace the shadows you serve." I said before moving on; it was not wise to linger.

The creatures' attacks had been growing more frequent. It bothered me. Whatever was leading them was wising up to my tactics and sending more Walkers, apparently learning that I couldn't deal with them as easily as the others. I gathered my knives from where they lay on the ground. Surprisingly, the balanced blades never got damaged by the explosions of the creatures, making it easy to use them again.

After checking that I was not being followed by more Cubes, I slipped into the labyrinth of ice tunnels in the back of my cave to check up on my surveillance. The humans had been coming to the glacier frequently in search of something. I had made it my goal to keep them as far away from myself and my home as possible.

This time should have been no different. It should have been simple. Lure the cube creatures towards the humans then disappear under my hood. They would fight the cubes and my home would be safe. This time it _was_ different though. Things went wrong almost instantly.

The first mistake I made was that I got careless. Normally a bunch of Cubes would be patrolling the area where the tunnel ended. It never occurred to me that maybe the thing leading the creatures might have recognized my pattern. So this time, instead of the Cubes I was expecting, a group of three Walkers were waiting for my exit.

I walked out of the tunnel expecting to see idiotic Cubes walk past me. Instead, I was caught off guard when a Walker's leg nearly impaled me from above. I rolled to the side and right into the rapid laser fire of another Walker. I was knocked back by the beams, my midsection stinging from the laser.

I heard a crackle of energy and pushed myself to my feet just in time to leap to my right, avoiding another batch of lasers. That was my second mistake. The Walkers looked almost gleeful now, though it was hard to tell as they had no real faces. I backed up a few more steps then stopped. My back was pressed against a wall of ice. I had run myself into a wall.

I growled and flicked up my hood, hoping to buy myself a bit more time. As expected, the sudden disappearance of their prey confused the Walkers. They fired at the spot where I had stood, hoping to hit me. Unfortunately for them, I was already gone. I ran under the long legs of the middle Walker, gripping the handle of my Kabutowari.

The third mistake I made was not leaving when I had the chance. I quickly climbed up a low wall and turned around to glare at the three confused Walkers. I drew the blade, which dispelled the invisibility of my hood, and jumped onto the back of the middle Walker. I stabbed its target then jumped off.

The flat-headed creature exploded, alerting the other two of my presence. They turned around to look at me. Mistake number four was not paying attention to my surroundings. It was because of that particular mistake that I even didn't notice someone had stepped up beside me until he spoke up.

"Oh, so this is where you've been, huh? Hunting for krab?" the purple human asked, startling me.

My shock landed me on my back as I was once again shot by one of the Walkers. I growled as I got back to my feet. I hurled a throwing knife at the Walker that had shot me. The knife spun through the air, imbedding itself into one of it's three eyes. The Walker staggered around, screeching before it exploded. Pathetic.

The purple human jumped into the air, much higher than I was able, and shot the remaining Walker with some sort of projectile from his wrist. He landed, his long tail flicking behind him. The Walker exploded as the purple human stood up, a broad smile on his face.

"Well, that was fun, huh?" He asked when I glared at him.

"No," I said shortly, turning away from him and walking towards my cave, careful not to take the tunnels.

"Aw, what's the matter?" he asked, following me.

"Leave me alone." I said, bending down to pick up my throwing knife.

He didn't leave me alone, in fact he wouldn't shut up. And despite my attempts to evade him, he always found me after a while.

"Aha, found you!" he cheered the final time he caught up to me.

"Leave. Me. Alone!" I snarled, rushing at him with my Kabutowari aimed at his head.

Just before I hit him, he crossed his arms over his chest. Instantly, a glowing energy shield appeared that sent me flying backwards when I crashed into it.

"Hey, now, no need to devirtualize me." He said jokingly, lowering the shield. "I just found you, no need to send me away."

"Go away," I snarled as I threw one of my knives at him, running at him at the same time.

He shot my knife out of the air, eyes wide in surprise. He didn't even have time to react before he got stabbed in the chest by the slender blade in my hand.

"Finally," I sighed relief.

The boy disappeared in a cloud of small white squares, which confused me as everything else had exploded violently when it died. I studied the squares as they floated into the sky. Interesting.

"You know, in our society, we tend to not kill people just because they won't leave us alone. Although, you're not the first person to react badly to Odd's jokes." I heard a familiar voice behind me. I turned around to glare at the pink haired girl from before.

"That's great. Now leave me alone," I said, stalking away.

"Wait!" the girl said, jogging closer. "We've been looking for you. We just want to talk."

"As I said: that's great." I said, waving my hand over my shoulder. "Now if you don't mind, there are creatures searching far and wide for my head."

"Are you sure you can hold them off?" The girl asked, her tone sounding concerned. "You took quite a beating in that last fight."

Her words made me stop and consider. She did have a point. I had been hit more times than any other fight I'd been in. And I wasn't sure if the aching in my chest would go away anytime soon; none of the other wounds I had ever suffered did. I turned around to look at her.

"Fine," I said curtly. "I'll talk. Just promise to leave me alone after that."

"Done," She said, smiling slightly before turning around and walking in the direction I had seen the other humans.

I followed her. The girl kept quiet as she lead me around the spot where I had fought the Walkers. Walking around the wall that had trapped me, she waved to the remaining humans as she approached.

They were waiting for us at the base of a large white pillar covered in a blue aura with black cords leading away from it. They stood at ease, as if they knew there were no more creatures around. The human in yellow gripped the katana that rested at his hip when he saw me, but other than that there was no outward reaction to my presence.

"Where's Odd?" he asked, directing his attention to the pink girl at my side.

"On Earth. Our guest here decided he was too annoying," my guide replied.

The yellow human nodded, grunting. The black and red human eyed me warily, as if I were a creature that would attack at any moment. I glared at her.

"You wanted to talk, so talk." I said to the pink girl.

"Fine, let's talk about what we do here first," the girl in black and red sighed.

"Yeah, right Yumi," the yellow human nodded. "We are the Lyoko Warriors, and we fight Xana, an evil artificial intelligence, here on Lyoko. Xana can only gain access to our world, Earth, by activating towers, like the one behind us."

"You mean the pillars?" I frowned while pointing at the pillar behind them.

"Yeah," the yellow human said nodding.

"Continue." I said.

"Well, we searched for any references to you but could barely find anything," the yellow human explained. "But we think you can help us fight Xana. You're a good fighter. We could definitely use someone like you. And, if we go back to Sector Five, we might be able to find your genetic coding sequence. Then we can send you to our world just like Aelita."

In that moment, I was both confused and informed. I had no idea what this "Lyoko" was. Though from how the yellow human spoke of it, I assumed it was their name for the glacier. On the other side, this "Zanna" was most likely the one leading the Walkers, Slugs, and Cubes. The pillars, which I had previously ignored, were apparently important. In fact, it sounded like they gave this Zanna power.

A loud buzzing interrupted my thoughts. I knew that sound. Looking up, I saw several Flying Slugs heading right for me. Worse, the humans were not reacting, like they knew what was going to happen and saw nothing wrong with it.

The Flying Slugs flew past me, launching a volley of lasers at me, completely ignoring the humans. I rolled out of the way, throwing one of my knives at the closest Slug once I landed. The green creature strafed to the side, dodging my projectile easily. It seemed the Cubes weren't the only creatures that were learning.

Still the humans did nothing, just watching impassively as the Slugs came around for another pass. I snarled, drawing my last throwing knife, having lost most of them a long time ago. I hurled my knife at the yellow human's chest then flipped up my hood, running away as fast as I could. The humans had never been on my side. I had been an idiot for trusting them. Pathetic.

In the darkness of the core, an old program looked upon it's prey. It had succeeded. It released its hold on the tower that it had used to access her coding. At the edge of the Ice Sector, a tower's aura, which had been quietly red for several days now, shifted into the light blue of deactivation, its purpose completed.

Ulrich stumbled out of the scanner, clutching his chest in pain. He had no idea what had just happened. One minute the girl had been considering their proposal, then the next she was hurling knives into the air, looking like she had been betrayed. He had been so distracted by looking for what her opponent that he hadn't even realized she had thrown a knife at him until he was hit.

The boy shuffled out of the bronze tube and made his way to the elevator, still clutching his chest painfully. Her knives packed a punch, he'd give them that. He pressed the button to go up to the computer lab. By the time the elevator doors opened, the pain had faded. Ulrich walked over to Jeremie, who was seated at the monitor of the supercomputer, and looked over the genius' shoulder. Odd was leaning against the wall to the left of the computer genius.

"How's it going Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

"Ah, Ulrich, welcome back," Jeremie said. "Well, we've lost all sight of her. As soon as you got de-virtualized, she just vanished. I can't find her anywhere."

"What made her go all berserk like that?" Ulrich asked, stepping away from the computer wizard.

"I have no idea," Jeremie said, typing at the keyboard. "But we have a problem. She only had five life points left when I last saw her."

"That means that as soon as she gets hit, she'll get devirtualized." Odd chimed in.

"Right," Jeremie agreed. "And since she's a program, she won't be able to come back through the scanners. But there's nothing we can about it now. Let's just bring back Yumi and Aelita and hope nothing happens to her."

"Yeah," Odd and Ulrich agreed.

Jeremie relayed their plan to the girls, then brought them back to the real world. There was nothing else they could do, so they returned to Kadic. It was way past curfew.

I walked through the ice tunnels once again. It had been five raids since I had last seen the betrayers and life had become harder in my home. Without my throwing knives, I had to fight up close and personal, but the aching in my chest never went away. On top of that, the raids by Zanna were becoming more and more frequent. He sent all manner of creatures after me. Cubes, Walkers, Slugs. It seemed like he sent everything he could to attack me.

After each attack, there would be a pause for a while, then it would start all over again. It was during these respites that I would try and relocate. But all of the locations that were defensible were also ambush sites waiting to be used.

It was during one of the respites that I finally lost. I had just escaped from a group of walkers. I ran across the barren glacier, trying to put as much distance as I could between myself and the next wave of attacks. I was clutching my chest as, with all wounds I had ever suffered, the pain had not ceased.

It just when my foot was about to touch the ice that a laser flew past me. In my surprise, I tripped and slid across the ice.

"Not again," I thought. "It's too soon for another raid."

I wasn't ready. But I wasn't given a choice as another laser shot towards me. I rolled out of the way then pushed my protesting body to its feet to battle the creature that had dared attack me. It was different from every other creatures I had encountered up to that point.

It was white, with four legs holding it up. Its target sat in the middle of its thin head. It was sitting on its hind legs, its hollow forelegs pointed at me. It seemed to be looking at me with something akin to curiosity.

I flicked out my Kabutowari and lowered into a fighting stance, one which would allow me to move quickly should the need arise. The creature, which I decided to call a Crawler, let out a piercing cry before opening fire upon me. And just like that, I lost.


	3. Chapter 3: Darkness Becomes Me

**Chapter Three**

Darkness Becomes Me

The stream of lasers blasted at me at a pace I could barely keep up with. My blades were in constant motion as I blocked the bolts or dodged them gracelessly due to my injuries. Yet the Crawler did not tire. On top of that, the bolts pushed me back even as I blocked them, and there were several times I was forced to turn tail and run to avoid getting blasted off the glacier.

Eventually, I ended up with my back pressed against a tower, glowing a blue as cold as the will of Zanna. I glared at the Crawler angrily. By that point, I could barely move. The pain was so intense. My Kabutowari had been shot out of my hands. I was defenceless. I clutched my chest in pain.

My wounds had flared up when I rolled out of the way of the last barrage. It was strange, but in that moment, looking at the mindless creature that was sure to end me, with no way to escape, I didn't feeling angry. Instead I felt a sense of familiarity, as if I had stared death in the face before.

"Go on then," I said, wincing. "Finish it. Do your job."

The Crawler seemed to nod, before leveling its hollow legs at me. I saw a flash of red, then fell backwards and knew no more.

Jeremie sat in Ms. Hertz's science class, barely paying attention. This was not due to any fault of Ms. Hertz. Far from it, in fact. It was simply that Jeremie had studied electric currents in detail when he was building his robotic dog, Kiwi II, for the robotics competition last semester, making what Mrs. Hertz was teaching extremely old news to the young genius.

Frankly, Jeremie wasn't the only one not paying attention. Half the class was slacking off in some form or other. Sissi Delmas, the principal's daughter, was not-so-stealthily reading a fashion magazine. Odd was doodling on his notes beside Ulrich, who was staring out the window with glassy eyes. Aelita was the only Lyoko Warrior in the room who was actually paying attention to what the old science teacher was saying.

"Now, in a parallel circuit, if a lamp breaks or a component is disconnected from one parallel wire, the components on different branches keep working." Ms. Hertz said, pointing at the diagram she had drawn with her meter stick. "Who can tell me-"

She was cut off by the bell signalling the end of class. The old teacher looked at the clock in confusion, then scowled. She turned around to address the bustling students.

"Alright children, as homework, I want you to draw me a diagram of a complete and _functional_ circuit." she said loudly as the students walked towards the door of the classroom.

"Man, I tell ya, these classes are getting duller and duller." Odd said once the warriors were out of the room.

"Like you pay attention anyways, Odd," Ulrich joked.

"And you have room to talk, Ulrich?" Aelita laughed.

"Oh come on, I pay attention." Ulrich defended though a smile was present on his face.

"Oh yeah Ulrich, then what made the clouds so interesting today?" Odd smile, laying his hands behind his head.

"Uh," Ulrich stuttered before quickly changing the subject. "So Jeremie, have you made any progress on Sector Five?"

Before he could answer, Jeremie's computer started beeping. Odd immediately perked up as Jeremie pulled out the machine and read the warning.

"Xana attack," the genius announced quickly, breaking into a run. "Ice sector."

"I'll get Yumi," Ulrich called out before he branched off from the group, running to warn the older girl.

The others nodded and ran towards the forest for the second time that week.

When I opened my eyes, the world was black. Strange, the glacier never got dark. It always stayed bright enough to see clearly. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, expecting the pain from my injuries to make it difficult. But the pain wasn't there; my injuries didn't pain me. But why? Why would they suddenly cease to pain me? I got to my feet and looked around.

I was not on the glacier, that much was certain. I stood on a thin black walkway which fed into a larger circular platform with grey rings embedded into the floor. The platform floated over an abyss inside what appeared to be a dark blue cylinder.

I took a step towards the circular platform. As soon as my foot touched down, the grey rings lit up and hundreds of blue boxes coated the cylinder. Code began to write and delete itself in the boxes, the letters and numbers changing so fast I couldn't ever hope to figure out what it was trying to accomplish. Like so many things in the room, this felt strange to me. Familiar, comforting, but also… sad. Like there was something missing or incomplete.

My hands brushed against my side and I felt a set of handles on my belt. I looked down in surprise. My throwing knives were back! As was my Kabutowari. I had lost them. How were they back? I slowly walked to the center of the platform, the grey rings lighting up as I passed them.

"Alright guys," a strange voice echoed from all around me. "The tower is to the south. You should be able to see it."

"Who are you?" I snarled, drawing my reacquired Kabutowari quickly and looking around for the source of the voice.

"No, I haven't heard from either of them," the voice said, apparently ignoring me. "That kinda worries me. Let's just finish this quickly and hope nothing's happened to them."

"Are you talking to me?" I asked warily, not lowering my guard.

"Stop it, Odd. You only have fifty life points left, and you still need to protect Aelita." the voice said after a while. The names sounded familiar; I wondered why.

"You can't hear me," I realized, standing up straight. "Then why can I hear you?"

The voice didn't answer. Not that I thought it would. I sat down in the middle of the platform and closed my eyes, listening to the silence. It was soothing, not having to constantly look over my shoulder for an attack. It was the calmest I had ever been. Still, the sense of sadness would not leave me. It was faint but still present. The only interruptions I had was when the voice spoke, but soon I was able to ignore it.

A strange sound and a gasp broke me out of my revery. I had no idea how long I had been sitting there. Probably at least the span of one raid. My eyes shot open. When I saw the form of the pink girl, a knife was in my hand instantly. She looked surprised to see me but quickly raised her arms in front of her.

"Wait!" she shouted, fear becoming obvious in her eyes at the sight of the blades in my hands.

"Why?" I snarled, preparing to throw.

"Aelita, what's going on?" the voice asked.

"She's here, Jeremie!" The pink girl replied.

"What? How?" the voice asked.

"Get out." I said before the girl could answer.

Why could she talk to the voice when I could not? Why was she here? Where was the Crawler? These questions zipped through my head as I glared at the girl. She raised her hands above her head, as if signalling that she wouldn't hurt me. She took a step forwards.

"How are you here?" she asked.

"Get out!" I repeated. "You came in- so get out."

"I can't," she said, her expression hardening. "If I do, my friends will die."

"How?" I asked. "How are their fates decided by your presence here?"

She didn't waver. She didn't break down like I expected her to. Instead she remained firm and steady. I realized she was prepared to do anything to achieve her goals, no matter it was. Like me.

"Xana is using this tower to attack my friends," she said before quickly adding. "If I don't deactivate it, they'll die."

I scowled and slipped my knife back onto my belt. Her rambling was beginning to get on my nerves. I nodded my head to her in understanding, maybe if I let her go she would leave me alone. Her explanation made sense at any rate.

I moved back to the center of the platform and sat back down, watching her closely. She cautiously moved forwards, watching me just as close. She stepped onto the outer ring and looked upwards. To my surprise, she began to slowly float upwards. I stared at her as she rose up into the blackness of the tower. A few seconds later I heard the girl's voice from directly above me.

"Tower deactivated." she said.

I heard a groaning sound from all around me, similar to the voice. I figured that she would be done then; that she would leave. And she seemed about to as she floated down in front of me and make her way to the exit, but neither of us expected the voice to speak up again with what seemed dire news.

"Aelita, we got a big problem here," the voice said. "Zanna corrupted the program to launch a return to the past. Without it, we can't save Ulrich and Yumi."

Aelita's face fell like a Walker without legs. And, surprisingly enough, I took no pleasure in her shocked expression.

"Aelita, I need you to go to Sector Five and get the correct code back from Zanna," the voice said, "but you have to hurry. Ulrich said they don't have much time left."

"Alright Jeremie, I got it. Let's just hope I don't run into any monsters on the way," Aelita said, turning away from me.

"Be careful Aelita. You've got no one to protect you. What would happen if the Scyphozoa appears?"

"We don't have a choice Jeremie. If I don't go Ulrich and Yumi will die."

"How do you get to Sector Five?" I interupted, stepping towards her.

"I- uh, follow me." Aelita stuttered before running out of the tower.

I ran after her, easily keeping pace as we ran towards my original cave. As we ran, I kept watch for any approaching creatures. But nothing disturbed us. Aelita stopped suddenly at the edge of the glacier. She seemed to be waiting for something. I ran up beside her and looked around. There were no creatures in sight. Strange. Something wasn't right here.

"We need to move," I said. Aelita nodded.

"Alright Jeremie, we're here," Aelita said, looking up at the sky.

There was no reply from whoever she spoke to. In fact, nothing happened for quite a while. I was beginning to become bored when, out of nowhere, a white sphere appeared from the sea and flew towards us. I drew one of my blades in one hand and a throwing knife in the other, stepping forwards to meet the sphere.

Just as the sphere got within striking distance, I was blinded by a bright flash of light. I closed my eyes to protect them from the light. When I opened them again, I couldn't see. I panicked. I started to struggle, only to find that my body wouldn't respond.

I could only watch as I flew through the glacier. I saw many creatures roaming around in groups. I never saw any group with less than two walkers and a crawler. Zanna had obviously learned something from my defeat. I flew through the glacier. Then I passed it, flying onto the dark water that surrounded the icy land mass that been my home for so long.

Then the water dropped off, leaving me flying into nothing but a blue wall. I hurtled towards the wall, expecting to crash into it. Instead the wall seemed to part and allow me through. I watched as the blue squares that made up the wall slowly faded away and revealed a familiar purple dome. It was the place I had left when I first met the Warriors.

I flew around the giant white sphere once then entered through a thin line of light that poked through the rough exterior. I was forced to circle a giant version of the target present on all of the creatures before finally touching the ground. In a flash of light I had my body again.

I looked around at the room that I had been forced into. It was a dome, like everything else in this place. The ground was decorated with the giant target and there were no obvious entrances or exits. In short it was my least favorite place thus far. Aelita stood next to me, apparently used to the sensation of the journey.

"Well at least you didn't get sick," she commented.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

Aelita opened her mouth then closed it and looked upwards at the dome. I followed her gaze, but saw nothing. I slowly drew my knife in case she had seen something. The pinkette suddenly looked at me again with confusion.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied uncertainly. "The door should be opening up any second now."

As if the wall had heard her, it opened itself to reveal a narrow passageway out of the circular room. Aelita rushed forwards, taking the passageway into whatever this place had to throw at us. I followed her, staying a step behind her at all times.

The passageway was long and winding seeming to be designed to take up as much space as possible. Then, abruptly, it stopped. And opened up onto a square room with three other passageways leading out of it. Aelita stopped short and gave a cry of what sounded like despair.

"Oh no, a maze." she groaned.

"Why are you complaining?" I asked. "With this the creatures will have a harder time of tracking us."

"We need to find a key in the maze," Aelita explained.

"Does Zanna want you to find it?"

"No. Why?"

"Follow me." I walked down one of the passageways.

I had caught a glimpse of a slug skulking in the shadows of the route. I simply followed it. Wherever the creatures were hiding was the place that Zanna wanted nobody around. The Slug was sliding down the passageway, just barely within my line of sight.

I raised my hood and ran behind the Slug. Once I was just barely behind it, I drew my Kabutowari and slashed its throat. With my sudden appearance, Aelita yelped. She apparently hadn't been able to track me in the low light. I flicked my hood down and walked into the next room, expecting her to follow.

It was the same as the one we had just left causing me to realize why Aelita had been distressed. It would have been impossible to find the correct route through this place with getting lost at least once. I scowled then searched for another creature.

I repeated this system until we reached a room with no doors. Across the room was the target that I had become so familiar with. The fact there were no creatures guarding the room set off all sorts of alarms in my head.

"There it is," Aelita said. "Come on, we only have thirty seconds left."

I didn't know what she meant but I got the premise. We needed to move. I nodded and took a cautious step forwards. I heard a rumble from the tile that held my foot and stepped back. The tile fell away, revealing a black abyss that went on endlessly. That's why it wasn't guarded.

I scowled then grabbed one of my throwing knives. I raised the knife above my head, making sure that my aim was perfect. In a single, smooth motion I launched the knife towards the target. The thin blade spun through the air, moving right towards the target. My knife hit the target with a small ding.

The target lit up bright blue ring by ring as it slid into the wall. Once it was flush with the wall, there was a rumbling sound as a path opened up to my right. Aelita smiled and ran down the path. I scowled at the loss of my knife then followed her.

The path was dark for the majority of the way but I managed. Aelita didn't slow down until we began to see some light at the end. When the passageway opened up it revealed a dead end cliff. There was nothing there. Just two feet of floor then nothing. And yet Aelita stood still, as if waiting for something.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

Aelita didn't answer as she began to run forwards. As she was passing me, she grabbed my arm and dragged me with her. Unsuspecting of the sudden force, I was not prepared to offer any resistance as she jumped off the edge of the floor, with me in tow.

We fell, then suddenly we were caught. I looked at our savior. It was a thin strip of panels rising rapidly. The walls were moving too fast to see anything specific, so I couldn't tell what was going on. Finally, the panels began to slow.

Aelita let go of my arm and stood up as the panels came to a stop. She walked off of the panels towards a familiar drop off. It was the same place that I had found the board that took me to the glacier.

I stood up and followed my guide and charge. She was standing at the end of the platform, interacting with a light blue panel. She was solely focused on her task, I doubted she would notice anything besides her work. But I did. I noticed the near silent cracking sound that came from the purple sphere. I looked up and saw that the purple wall had multiple bulges coming out of it. I readied my knives and glared at the bulges.

"You better finish whatever you're doing quickly, girl," I said to Aelita, "because soon we are going to be fighting."

"Okay," Aelita said, not taking her eyes off her work. "Try to keep the Mantas occupied while I finish up."

I nodded and faced the bulges once more, trying to come up with some sort of plan. The bulges were across the empty space that separated the white sphere with the purple dome. To get to us, these "Mantas" would have to fly. That meant that I was at a disadvantage. I scowled.

"Almost done," Aelita reported as the bulges began to grow.

"Finish quickly," I ordered, eyeing the expanding bulges, "the creatures will be here soon."

"Done," she reported. "Quickly Jeremie, launch a return to the past."

"Who are you talking to?" I snarled as the cracking sound became increasingly audible.

It was then that the Mantas arrived. They burst through their bulges and flew towards us. They were like Walkers but flatter and with wings coming out of the sides of their shells, not to mention they were blue instead of red.

They began to fire on us, their lasers seeming much faster than normal. I began blocking the ones that came near me and a few that didn't. Aelita was kept working on her panel as I tried to keep her from harm. Since there were three of them, I was at a severe disadvantage. I could barely keep up with them.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the board from before had appeared next to the walkway. I took my eyes off my opponents for only a moment and looked back to see three lasers headed straight for Aelita's unaware head.

I scowled then swept her legs out from under her with my heel. She yelped as she fell onto the board away from the harm of the lasers. I blocked more lasers from the Mantas and stepped back onto the board.

"Calm down and get us out of here," I yelled at Aelita over my shoulder.

"I can't, we still need to shut down the interface," she replied, getting to her feet.

"Then shut it down," I growled, pushing her out of the way of another laser.

She stumbled forwards a ftep then began swiping her hands across the panel once more. In the time that she played with the stupid thing, I was blocking an almost never-ending stream of lasers from hitting her. Finally she swiped her hand to her right and the panel vanished. She hopped onto the board in front of me. Just like before, it took off on it's own.

"Where's the open tunnel?" I asked as I clung to her. "There was one here before."

"It should be opening up now." she called over her shoulder.

"Then hurry it up, those Mantas are faster than us," I looked back and nodded at the flying creatures.

"Any second now." Aelita responded just before one of the dark tunnels opened up. "Here we go."

We flew through the tunnel, just barely leaving behind the Mantas. Just like before we flew out over the glacier with the board slowing down and stopping right beside a tower. I jumped off the board once it was close enough to the ground and waited for the warrior to land. Aelita waited until the board had all but touched the ground before stepping off the board and walking over to me.

"Thank for your help," she said. "Jeremy said that Ulrich and Yumi are fine."

I nodded and began walking away. My job was done. That was it for me. Or at least I thought it was until the warrior's voice stopped me.

"Just to let you know, if you ever reconsider, we'd still like to have you."

I nodded then began walking again, making my way back towards my home. Zanna had to have launched a few raids while I was away. I didn't want to keep him waiting. After all, where else would he send his creatures to die. But still, the humans obviously fought against Zanna. So why did they let him attack me during our meeting?


End file.
